Power Struggles Over Pep and High School Popularity

LOS ANGELES — The jubilant young dancers in the new musical “Bring It On,” at the Ahmanson Theater here, should probably be racking up frequent-flier miles, so often are they airborne in this featherweight show about competing high school cheerleading squads.

The director and choreographer, Andy Blankenbuehler, has clearly schooled himself in the elaborate acrobatics that have become the standard for teams competing in the national finals, an event that has long been televised on ESPN. The primary delights in “Bring It On” are the breathtaking displays of human fireworks that send the show’s well-drilled dancers flying skyward, forming towering human pyramids, or tumbling across the stage backward, like electric-powered Slinkys.

When the cast is earthbound, this enjoyable but trivial musical generally is, too, leaping back and forth across the line between spoofery and sincerity in depicting the rituals and rivalries of school life. Its semisweet flavor is much like that of “Lysistrata Jones,” the musical opening on Broadway next month that is also set among the sis-boom-bah crowd, albeit in college.

And yet for all its cheery air of inconsequentiality, “Bring It On” is an intriguing collaboration among artists with serious Broadway cred. The score is a tag-team effort from the Tony-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda, from “In the Heights,” and Tom Kitt, the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of “Next to Normal,” here working with the lyricist Amanda Green. The book is by Jeff Whitty, who’s got his own twirling Tony on the mantelpiece, for “Avenue Q.”

Perhaps because of the firepower of the talents involved, the musical, which plays in Los Angeles through Dec. 10 before moving on to San Francisco, Denver and Houston, owes less than you might expect to the popular movie that inspired it.

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From left, Adrienne Warren, Taylor Louderman and Elle McLemore in "Bring It On: The Musical" at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles.Credit
Craig Schwartz

Not that there was much inspiring material to work from. Although the film spawned multiple sequels, it’s wafer-thin and insipid. The musical borrows just the cheer-squad background and the rivalry between two schools — one populated by entitled blondes and the other by a multicultural mix of less affluent kids — for the shining trophy awarded to the best squad at the climax.

And while the first movie was all about the blondes, Mr. Whitty has found a clever way to spread the story more equally between the two schools. Campbell (Taylor Louderman), in the equivalent of the Kirsten Dunst role in the first film, is head cheerleader at the more wealthy and white Truman High until a sudden quirk of redistricting forces her to attend nearby Jackson High, which doesn’t even have a squad. Horrors!

Along with her fellow redistrictee, the plump, cheery misfit Bridget (a terrific Ryann Redmond), who has always been relegated to the humiliating role of Bucky the Parrot (the school mascot), Campbell has to find her way in this strange new environment, where pep is a dirty word, and the campus is ruled by the imperious Danielle (Adrienne Warren), who leads a dance crew. Danielle establishes her contempt for Campbell’s driving passion in the lively number “We Ain’t No Cheerleaders,” backed up by her sassy fellow crew members Nautica (Ariana DeBose) and La Cienega (Gregory Haney).

That La Cienega happens to be a drag queen, and yet is firmly part of the in crowd at this supposedly tough school, establishes pretty clearly the fantasy universe in which “Bring It On” takes place. This never-never land is the same setting for its small-screen equivalents, like the hugely popular “High School Musical” and the TV series “Glee.”

The musical hopscotches through familiar territory as Campbell, once the queen bee and now the misfit, finds a way to bond with Danielle and persuade her to transform the crew into a cheer outfit. “Bring It On” also takes time, in a second act that could use some trimming, to squeeze in budding romances for Campbell and Bridget, apparently de rigueur material for any entertainment set among the newly hormone-riddled.

Mr. Whitty provides lots of choice lines for the snarky Skylar of the Truman squad, played with sugary malice by a very amusing Kate Rockwell. “I am so upset I am actually going to go eat something,” she pouts after a setback. And he writes funny for the goofy Bridget, suddenly bewildered to find herself attracting a boy’s attention.

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Taylor Louderman, center, as the head cheerleader in “Bring It On: The Musical,” with other cast members.Credit
Craig Schwartz

“I’m confused,” she tells Nautica. “Which makes me neurotic and weird, which could lead to my own very special episode of ‘Hoarders’ by the time I’m 21.”

The plot is further dressed up with a forgivable swipe from “All About Eve,” wherein Campbell’s young protégée, Eva (Elle McLemore, glinting with ambition beneath a cosmetic layer of sweetness), schemes to manipulate her way to the top of the cheer pyramid.

After an opening number that truly dazzles as it reveals the cast’s impressive gymnastic prowess, the score hits its stride only when Campbell transfers to Jackson High. Driven by surging R&B grooves and churning lyrics that suggest the fingerprints of Mr. Miranda, whose rap-inflected score was the key ingredient in the success of “In the Heights,” the dance numbers for the Jackson crowd kick the musical into high gear for most of the first act.

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The second act features more routine if proficient songs, like the love duet for Campbell and her new boyfriend, Randall (Jason Gotay), and another bonding duet for Campbell and Danielle. The buildup to the cheer-off at the nationals takes too long, and it’s disappointing that, because most of the dancers double as members of both squads, we see only one competing routine.

Like most entertainments about the trials and triumphs of the teenage years, “Bring It On” has as much sap as it does pep in its DNA. It’s distinguished primarily by the electrifying dance routines and the elaborate cheer-squad performances. The formulaic romances and the ultimate triumph of the good girls over the mean girls may inspire the occasional yawn, but this is also the only musical I’ve seen that had me regularly gasping at the human pyrotechnics on display. Instead of humming the songs — or the scenery, as the old joke goes — you leave humming the gymnastics.

A listing of credits on Wednesday with a theater review of “Bring It On: The Musical,” at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, omitted a producer. He is Charlie Lyons.

A version of this review appears in print on November 23, 2011, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Power Struggles Over Pep And High School Popularity. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe